ABG Shipyard has been making news in recent days. The scam by this shipbuilding business has not only placed the Narendra Modi administration under scrutiny but has also thrown the opposition and the Modi government into a political fight. The ABG Shipyard Limited, a Gujarat-based shipbuilding enterprise, was accused of defrauding a consortium of 28 banks, including the State Bank of India (SBI), IDBI, and ICICI, for Rs 22,800 crores.
Without a doubt, ABG Shipyard is the largest private shipyard in India. The organisation has a large client base around the globe. They are the first to create all-aluminium jet-propelled watercraft that are powered by diesel-electric dynamic ships.
The company’s registered office and yard are both located in Surat, Gujarat. The company’s first ship was delivered in the year 1990. In the 15 years after its inception in 1991, the firm has grown to become India’s largest private sector shipbuilding yard, with a global client base of happy clients.
AGB Shipyard Fraud: How Did the Fraud Come to Light?
Based on a complaint from the State Bank of India, the Enforcement Directorate filed a money-laundering investigation against Gujarat-based ABG Shipyard, which has been described as being implicated in “India’s biggest bank scam in history.” The company’s chairman, Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal, has been questioned by the CBI for defaulting on loans of Rs 22,842 crore that ABG Shipyard obtained from 28 banks.
According to the CBI, a forensic audit conducted by Ernst & Young in 2019 indicated that funds were diverted to other linked firms, with loans reportedly being utilised for investments through offshore subsidiaries. According to the examining agency, these loans were not utilised for the intended purpose, thereby breaking the agreements.
AGB Shipyard Fraud: Actions Taken by SBI Against the company
On November 8, 2019, the SBI filed a complaint on a very serious note in order to get strong clarifications, and on March 12, 2020, the SBI requested explanations too. In August of that year, the bank filed a new case. The CBI moved on the complaint after “scrutinising” it for over a year and a half, registering the FIR on February 7 this year.
The SBI said in its lawsuit that the problem was caused by the global economic slump and the shipbuilding sector, according to the news agency Press Trust of India. It had “affected the shipping sector as a result of a drop in commodities demand and prices, as well as a drop in cargo demand.”
AGB Shipyard Fraud: Banks Involved in the Case
According to a case filed by the State Bank of India, AGB Shipyard owes the bank 2,925 crores, ICICI Bank 7,089 crore, IDBI Bank 3,634 crore, Bank of Baroda 1,614 crore, Punjab National Bank (PNB) 1,244 crore, and Indian Overseas Bank 1,228 crore (IOB).
According to CBI, the funds were utilised for reasons other than those for which they were given by banks. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has opened a second money laundering inquiry into them.
AGB Shipyard Fraud: Why Is It Considered As India’s Biggest Bank Fraud?
Previous diamond merchant Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi’s scams totalled about Rs 14,000 crore, while Vijay Mallya’s fraud was Rs 9,900 crore. The case of AGB Shipyard has crossed amounts of all the previous scams in history.
Former Chairman and MD of ABG Shipyard Limited Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal, former executive director Santhanam Muthaswamy, and directors Ashwini Kumar, Sushil Kumar Agarwal, and Ravi Vimal Nevatia have all been charged by the investigating agency and the officials. Meanwhile, searches have been carried out in 13 ABG Shipyard facilities.
ABG Shipyard is the subject of a forensic audit that was organised and conducted by Ernst & Young LLP. Between April 2012 and July 2017, it uncovers evidence of fraud. According to the audit, fraud was committed through “finances diversion, theft, and criminal breach of trust, with the goal of gaining unlawfully at the expense of the bank’s funds.”
ABG Shipyard received loans from 28 institutions in the form of three distinct types of loans. The funds generated from these loans were subsequently funnelled through 98 sister concern firms for mostly personal benefit.
AGB Shipyard Fraud: Timeline of the events
1985: The ABG Group’s flagship enterprise, ABG Shipyard Ltd, was founded. It was run and operated by Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal and is in the shipbuilding and repair industry, with shipyards in Gujarat’s Dahesh and Surat cities. It is financed by a consortium of 28 banks, with ICICI being the principal bank.
2005-2008: Despite warnings of danger from the global financial crisis of 2008, banks continue to lend grandly to ABG Shipyards.
2008: The worldwide financial crisis, which was sparked by the housing bubble in the United States and the fall of Lehman Brothers, affected ABG Shipyards.
2014: Under corporate debt restructuring, or CDR, SBI tries to restructure debts to ABG Shipyard. The reorganisation failed terribly because ABG Shipyards was unable to pay the interest and instalments on time and with parity.
2019: SBI identified the fraud in January 2019.
2020: SBI filed a complaint in 2019 and then again a detailed complaint in 2020.
2022: ABG Shipyard and ABG International Private Ltd are both booked by CBI. According to the CBI’s FIR, ABG SL owes a total of Rs 22,842 crore.
The CBI has issued lookout notices for Rishi Agarwal, ABG executives Santhanam Muthuswamy and Ashwini Kumar, and founder Rishi Agarwal.
Meanwhile, the opposition, led by the Congress party, had accused the Narendra Modi administration of participating in “India’s biggest bank fraud” of Rs 22,842 crore, which is larger than Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi’s PNB scandal of Rs 14,000 crore and breaks the history of scams. The BJP government at the Centre pointed out that the fraud occurred during the UPA administration, the Congress retaliated by questioning why it took the CBI and SBI nearly seven years to find the crime. Along with that, the banks are in a terrible position of attempting to recoup their losses.
FAQ
What happened to ABG Shipyard?
The CBI has filed a complaint against ABG Shipyard for cheating 28 banks of Rs 22,482 crores.
Who is the owner of ABG Shipyard?
Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal is the owner and chairman of ABG Shipyard.
The article is contributed By Vikash-Mishra, CEO and Co-founder of Moeving.
Animals, especially horses, have been central to transportation for a millennium. We humans had built our entire mobility infrastructure to suit this mode of transportation. However, when the modern car came into existence in the early 1900s, it replaced horses at an unanticipated pace. In a few urban settings like New York, the transition took less than a decade. People had to completely rebuild the transportation infrastructure, including fuel pumps, service stations and roads. And, this happened while the world was fighting World War I.
A hundred years later, today, the transport industry is coming full circle. The world is at the cusp of another transportation revolution, one that promises to eliminate emissions related to transportation and make it sustainable again. This time, the ICE (Internal Combustion Engines) engines are at the receiving end. As of today, it might look like an insignificant trickle globally but the tipping point for Electric Vehicles (EV) is not far. With much of Europe already reaching double digit percentage sales penetration, steadily globally uptake of EVs driven by technology innovation, will do to ICE vehicles exactly what happened to horse-driven vehicles; obsolete. The speed at which the transition will take place in this decade, especially in high-density areas like larger cities, means we will witness a time when EVs will outnumber fossil fuel vehicles by several times.
The transition will not be a simple passing of the baton though. We will have to reimagine the entire transport industry like we did when transitioning from horses to cars. Working in siloed partnerships will not lead to meaningful at-scale growth, but taking a holistic ecosystem approach to tie all the loose ends can lead to faster adoption of EVs. The form factor of EVs, which has started as an extension or as a mirror image of the ICEVs, will transform significantly. These will be largely triggered by economic dynamics (policy push towards manufacturing, new age financing of vehicles, natural realignment of cities in line with MRTS, etc.), technology interventions from AI, IoT (leveraging data science for better vehicle quality, autonomous technologies), battery form-factor (flexible batteries allowing EV form factors fluidity), as well as fast charging technology (adding to range and reducing downtime). However, the biggest impact on how EVs evolve will be triggered by changing human behaviour. As people move from ownership to access, and as more move to hybrid working styles, the way people view mobility will change.
Like during the transition from horses to cars, there will be massive disruption with some clear winners and heavy losers. Like in the 1900s, transportation infrastructure was rebuilt, during the EV disruption, given the higher upfront vehicle cost but lower vehicle built-up complexity, we need to further optimize our EV infrastructure investments, for example in terms of charging and maintenance, and build highly distributed, accessible low cost infrastructure with an ecosystem approach. There will be limitless opportunities for early adopters who can visualise some of these changes early enough. This is true for people and organisations, but even more so for nations. India, due to its unique position (very low per-capita personal vehicle density, evolving urban infrastructure, robust start-up ecosystem, abundance of rare earth metals, growing renewable energy focus) can become a global hub for EV manufacturing and adoption if it plays its cards right.
Everyone affinities to travel in the airline once in their lifetime and two-thirds of people in India have experienced their dreams. We all know, India is renowned for the Civil and Military aviation industry according to the International Air Transport Association.
Starting its Voyage on 18th February 1911 by covering 9.7 kilometers from Jumna River to Nainin and ultimately becoming the burgeon aviation market in the world. Epiphany, India Aviation industry became the blue ribbon and prognosticate to rank third largest aviation market in the world by 2024.
In the remote times, those people who are rich could afford the airline ticket, besides there is not much development made from the side of Indian Aviation industry.
As time ticks away, we are here eventually becoming the fastest-growing aviation market and owning 128 operational airports as of now.
The history of the Indian Aviation industry incipient back in 1911, where the plane was set as a tool to carry out mail across the Yamuna river to Naina. When it comes, domination of aviation- IndiGo stands top of the list, along with Spicejet, Vistara, AirAsia India and Air India.
Furthermore, these six aviation networks connect nearly 80 cities across India and play a vital part in the development of the Indian Aviation Industry. On the other hand, Indian Military Aviation would never let us down in bestowing a major role.
The three crucial constituents of military aviation in India are the IAF, Wings of the Army and the Navy where the Indian Air Force is the world’s 4th largest air force. As well as, it is stated that the military aviation industry is plotting aerospace research to study the aviation model related hardware and software.
Day by day, the number of travellers in India board gradually accelerated, which is reported as the industry quadrupled in size and expected passengers to be tripled around 560 million by 2037.
Notably, the Indian aviation industry is the third-largest aviation industry in the world and stands 5th largest market regarding aircraft passengers in both domestic and international.
Indian Aviation industry represents oligopoly characteristics and also sees a great impact in 2010- 2019 where a CAGR of 13.4% augment in the domestic passenger traffic, whereas the international grew at a CAGR of 9.3%.
As is the case, the ongoing pandemic lucidly tumours the Indian aviation industry which incurred 2.9 billion in 2020 and 4.1 billion in the current fiscal year 2021-22, where the industry faced a decline in India’s passenger traffic.
Government Initiatives & Developments in the Indian Aviation industry
A Scheme for India’s unserved and under-served airports
According to the National Civil Aviation Policy 2016, a scheme has been framed in order to enlighten the connectivity to India’s unserved and under-served airports. Additionally, the scheme also focuses on the price of a one-hour journey to be estimated at around 2500 INR.
Indian Aviation industry may look into Investment upto USD 5 billion
In the next four years, the Indian Aviation industry may look into USD 5 billion worth of investment and anticipate nearly 25 Billion foreign investment to enter the airport sector by 2027.
The report by the government of India permitted 100% FDI on the Indian Aviation industry in order to consolidate the connectivity overseas. We could witness, UK group invest 950 Crore in Turbo Aviation New airline Trustar.
Indian aviation industry set to build water aerodromes
In 2021, the Indian aviation industry is set to build two water aerodromes in Assam and Andaman & Nicobar island to entice tourism as well as GDP. Besides, the government is planning to launch 14 more water aerodromes across India.
Indira Gandhi International Airport
The Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi is set to dilate in order to augment passengers, which subsumes new instalments such as Terminal point, additional runway and other advanced facilities.
On the Government side, they are working diligently to maintain the sustainability of the Indian Aviation industry by providing financial services to many airports across the country under the UDAN scheme for advancement and development.
Zurich Airport International to corroborate in development of Jewar Airport
Zurich Airport International is corroborated to design or operate Noida International Airport for the next 40 years on the development of Jewar Airport.
Runways at seven airports across the country
Prior to March 2022, the Airports Authority of India concurred to establish runways at seven airports across the country.
Krishi Udaan scheme
Krishi Udaan scheme is introduced under Union Budget 2021-22, to reduce air pollution by letting 50% for agri-perishable and ameliorate air cargo transportation in North-east states of India.
In 2015, 22 airlines were operating in India. The Indian aviation industry has grown so much since then and the top players in the Indian Aviation Industry as of 2020 are:
Interglobe Aviation (IndiGo)
IndiGo is an Indian airline based in Gurgaon, Haryana that offers low-cost travel. The company was founded in 2006 by Rahul Bhatia of InterGlobe Enterprises and Rakesh Gangwal. The airline is the largest in terms of passengers carried and fleet size with having a domestic market share of 59.24% as of August 2020.
SpiceJet
SpiceJet is another low-cost airline based in Gurgaon, Haryana. The company is the second-largest airline in India by the number of passengers carried and it holds a market share of 13.6% as of March 2019.
The company was established as an air taxi provider and was acquired by Ajay Singh and renamed SpiceJet in 2004 and took off its first flight in May 2005.
Jet Airways
Jet Airways is a Mumbai based Indian International airline founded by Naresh Goyal that started as an air taxi operator in 1993 and became a full-fledged airline in 1995 and started its International flights in 2005.
It was one of the largest Indian airlines with a market share of 21.2% in February 2016. But due to competition and price war, the company underwent a downfall leaving it Bankrupt and forcing the company to cease its operations in April 2019. The company is due to come back at the end of 2021.
Air India
Air India is previously known as Tata Airlines and was founded by J. R. D. Tata in 1932. After 1945, the airline was made into a public limited company and was named Air India.
Air India is headquartered in New Delhi and is owned by the Government-owned Enterprise, Air India Limited. It is the Largest International carrier out of India and holds a market share of 18.6%.
Condition of Indian Aviation Industry In the COVID Pandemic
Indian Aviation Industry consists of both military aviation like Indian Air Force(IAF) and civil airlines like IndiGo. While Government controlled Airlines like Air India, Alliance Air and IAF have been a saviour by carrying medical cargo during these COVID times, the civil airlines have seen a tremendous loss that is estimated to be INR 210 billion in FY 2020-21.
To compensate for the loss, the Centre allowed for a hike in fares of airlines by 30% which only worsened the situation. During April-October 2020, domestic flights had been declining over 70% while International flights have declined at 77%. IndiGo and SpiceJet reported having lost INR 31 crore per day during the first half of 2020.
Conclusion
The COVID pandemic has not only made us cancel our planned trips with friends and family but also has many industries on the brink of a complete shutdown and has made the economies of top countries crumble.
The Indian Aviation Industry was one of the main industries that took a downfall due to the COVID situation around the globe with many countries still not lifting their ban on International travel. And this loss would tremendously affect the GDP of the country as the aviation industry contributes $72 billion to the GDP of India.
It is predicted that the Indian Aviation Industry will bounce back to its pre-pandemic level by 2022 or 2023.
FAQ
What is the Indian Aviation Industry?
Aviation Industry is the business sector in which all types of aircraft are manufactured and operated. According to International Air transportation Association(IATA), Indian Aviation Industry is the fastest-growing aviation industry in the world and is set to be the third-largest aviation market in the world by 2024.
What is the revenue of the Indian Aviation Industry?
The aviation industry in India has seen a loss for the FY2020-21 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The estimated net loss by ICRA for the fiscal year 2020-2021 was INR 210 billion.
How many branches does the Indian Aviation Industry hold?
The Indian aviation industry is classified into two branches: Civil aviation and Military aviation. India’s aviation manufacturing hub is situated in Bangalore and holds a 65% share of this economic sector.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by HumSafer.
Good Mind (Parent Company of HumSafer App) has built an asset-light, free,AI-based Road Safety Solution that aims to cut the rate of road incidents to zero. Founded by Jehaan Kotwal and Sumedh Mane, HumSafer aims to reduce road accidents and improve the lives of truckers by implementing measures to improve their lives. It’s a revolution in road safety through an evolution in behavior!
#DriveForOxygen by HumSafer is an initiative that aims to support 4000 HAZ certified drivers that clock over 12 hours to supply oxygen across the country. This initiative not only went viral but was also was able to raise over 11 Lakhs from 250 sponsors; the resulting fund-‘COVID Kavach’ will then be guaranteed to 10,000 drivers in the first leg of the drive.
StartupTalky interviewed the founders of HumSafer, Jehaan Kotwal and Sumedh Mane to know the startup story and the roadmap of the organization. Know how HumSafer started, its vision, USP, future plans, business model & more.
Good Mind (Parent Organization of HumSafer App) has built an asset-light, free, AI-based Road Safety Solution that aims to cut the rate of road incidents to zero. By prompting drivers at the right time with gentle nudges with regard to their driving, truckers are able to modify their behavior and take corrective measures. Coupled with incentives for good driving, the team @ HumSafer is confident that road accidents can be avoided entirely.
Its vision is centered around reducing road accidents and improving the lives of truckers by implementing measures to improve their lives.
“We have created an entire ecosystem via our accessible platform to empower and uplift this community. Our core belief is that by using our technology, we can change driving behavior and save over 200 lives a day. It’s a revolution in road safety through an evolution in behavior” says Jehaan Kotwal & Sumedh Mane, HumSafer founders.
Sumedh Mane talks about HumSafer and the #DriveForOxygen
HumSafer – Industry Details
The transport industry is like a bloodline of any nation and over the period of time the industry today may seem booming as the products are reaching to people faster, deliveries are done before time and the experience of sending/receiving a package is becoming more seamless.
There are about 80 lakh truck drivers, across India according to a research report published in 2019. The majority of truck drivers are single owners and their ecosystem is highly unorganized – there are neither standard rates, schedules, shifts, routines, nor any union or unity amongst them.
The drivers are not left with any savings for their future, which makes them more hopeless about their future thoughts in life. As they don’t have any savings for the future, they land up in a very critical situation when there is some medical or money emergency in the family. It really is a vicious cycle of poverty and unpredictability that plagues generations of truck drivers.
Founders of HumSafer see the industry moving towards multimodal and more technology-savvy in the next 5 years. They hope to implement key products that are centered around empowering and uplifting this community.
The idea and conception of this startup are anecdotal as much as it is research-based. Jehaan Kotwal’s father, who was a truck driver brings over 30 years of domain knowledge to the table. While Jehaan himself has dedicated the last decade of his career to this sector, he realized that the needs of an entire marginalized community, whose services keep the country moving, have been neglected far too long. Using feedback from the primary research based on the principles of Human-Centered Design the MVP was designed. HumSafer App was then launched in January 2019.
Sumedh centered his career in Product, exploring technology, marketing, business acumen, but the one thing that remained through his startup and product career as Human-Centered Design, something he’s always been passionate about.
Jehaan would go on his truck every once in 2 years to understand the issues drivers face on-ground which is why he was able to build one of India’s safest transportation companies in the country, his solutions weren’t designed in an insulated office space but were derived from a root cause identification that is done on-ground to better serve the drivers.
When Sumedh came back from the UK after finishing his Computer Science Course, at the University of Glasgow, Jehaan had finally created the application he had briefly discussed before Sumedh left for 2 years.
They started informally discussing the idea and what can be done, and without knowing, organically, the idea flourished further and Sumedh decided to work on the idea full time! It was a professional relationship that had Human-Centered Design at its core.
HumSafer – Product/Service and USP
Problem Existent –
More than 90% of this segment start off as a cleaner first and are trained by the drivers they are helping. There is no formal training. If we want our roads to be safer, we need to help this community become better drivers.
Insight
Lack of safety concerns is not by choice but due to bad driving skills passed on due to the lack of centralized and formal training. Understanding what are the right incentives and motivating factors for changing their behavior is important for us to change their behavior
Solution
The HumSafer App! – Good Mind has built an asset-light-free AI-based Road safety solution that can help reduce accidents by giving gentle driving nudges to the drivers when they are driving badly and providing rewards when they are driving well. Think of it as Alexa for truckers!
HumSafer App
Pivot Point –
Although they did not pivot from the offering, what it learned in its pilot is if this was to be sold to truck drivers as a safety product, this isn’t going to work, which is why the company pivoted its product communication to a solution built for truck drivers as their companions: Aap ke saathi, aap ke saath! (Translation: Your companion, With you!)
USP –
Using gamification to understand motivation, incentives, and rewards, are the unique offerings that set HumSafer apart from any other safety app in the market. Some of these features include:
Alerts that gently nudge drivers on their safety and good driving behavior
Monetary rewards that are credited straight to the driver through UPI
Insurance and other medical aid they can register onto through the app
Live sharing of location with select contacts to keep in touch with their families
A 24/7 helpline for any road assistance
Community page-to share and discuss grievances and others with the community
Jehaan Kotwal and Sumedh Mane are the founders of HumSafer. Jehaan and Sumedh Mane studied in the same university where they were flatmates about 12 years ago, they have remained very close friends since.
Jehaan Kotwal
Jehaan Kotwal – Founder, HumSafer
Jehaan Kotwal is the son of a truck driver who traveled the length and breadth of the country as a cleaner. This hands-on experience was a real eye-opener for him as he witnessed firsthand the problems that the 8 million truckers were facing- lack of safety for one. As his experience grew, it became a dream to come up with a cost-effective solution that drivers can use and really depend on.
Sumedh Mane
Sumedh Mane – Founder, HumSafer
Sumedh in his company Hackathon built a logistics-based solution which his team won. He shared two of his ideas with Jehaan which he really liked and implemented in his solution. Those two ideas included using the sleep detection from the mobile phone front camera itself instead of spending 30-40k on an expensive device as well as Community and interaction to alert other drivers about dangers on their route.
How is the task divided?
Simply put, Jehaan runs the business arm of the organization, this includes liaising with external stakeholders such as investors and Revenue streams Connection as gathered from industry experience.
Sumedh runs the product arm of the organization and heads the tech and marketing teams. This includes CTO – Harsh Shah (Last Byte), Branding and Communication – Ayshwarya Sharma, and the UX and Design team, Nidhi Shah (Shrishti Bangalore Graduate with Design Experience).
This team is part of all product meetings regardless of their roles. The branding and communication team is involved in very early discussions of the product so they are integrated very well with the team
Current team size
2+6
Principles of hiring:“We hire people who are interested in solving this problem with the same passion we are. It is about making sure we share the same values and know what it takes to make our teams reach their highest potential” Founders of HumSafer further added.
HumSafer – Name Meaning and Logo
Jehaan and Sumedh wanted the name of the parent company to reflect their attitude towards their work and life. Good Mind (Vaho Mano in Avestan) is also one of the main pillars of Zoroastrianism which is their guiding principle. “Everything we build reflects that thought process and is the core of our belief” they added.
HumSafer Logo
HumSafer App was a wordplay with ‘Humsafar’ as it means companion in Hindi and HumSafer is indeed drivers’ companion but mainly focused on safety hence the ‘Safer’
HumSafer – Launch and Marketing Strategy
The company had its in-house 200 drivers, with JFK Transporters as a strategic partner. All its experiments and use-cases are tested on them before launching it to the 10 million.
Apart from that, HumSafer also started withOxygen drivers as the first real users during the second Covid wave where it insured 10k drivers and rewarded over Rs. 500-2000 per driver to over 1000 oxygen drivers for their amazing work during these tough times. HumSafer’s is predominantly driven through word of mouth and various transport associations. Its spend on marketing has been so far 0(Zero). The team wishes to put its energy more into building the best product for the truck driver, instead.
HumSafer has crossed over 10k and now is looking to reach 1 lakh drivers as its next milestone. It has made its technology scalable and the backend expandable, but outsourcing many of its non-core activities e.g. BPO’s and on-ground engagements. HumSafer’s #Driveforoxygen went viral and the team was able to raise sufficient funds to insure 10k drivers. Now it wishes to insure 50k more.
#DriveForOxygen is an initiative that aims to support 4000 HAZ certified drivers that clock over 12 hours to supply oxygen across various parts of the country. These drivers risk deliveries through containment zones, lockdowns, and exhaustion- all while not being considered as ‘frontline workers’, essential or even emergency services, and working on a basic salary.
Together with Uplift Mutual, HumSafer has been raising funds to benefit the most at-risk and marginalized section of its community- truck drivers. These drivers have been tirelessly ferrying oxygen to and from various locations across India.
“Through #DriveForOxygen, over 11 Lakhs has been raised from 250 sponsors; the resulting fund-‘COVID Kavach’ will be guaranteed to 10,000 drivers in the first leg of the drive. The next phase aims to empower and enrich the lives of the 8 million marginalized trucker community” Jehaan & Sumedh added.
HumSafer – Business Model
Good Mind is a social venture, which is why it also has an NGO partner HumSafer Driver Safety Foundation. It allows all its road safety NGO partners to use the HumSafer platform for free. It, in turn, provides services to the drivers and the companies on their products to be transported. It has 3 revenue streams that will make the company profitable from the get-go. The three revenue streams are currently not being disclosed until significant volumes are achieved.
“We went too big too fast with our technology spends and learned to fail fast quite late. We could have experimented more in a smaller way in terms of cost. We quickly covered it up in our learnings in the second version that the new in-house team built” as said by Jehaan & Sumedh, Fouders, HumSafer.
Key learning from its pilot was as follows:
Selling ‘safety’ to an Indian audience
As an idea and the story, they liked the idea very much but in terms of using the product, it wasn’t very exciting for them
The team had to go back to the drawing board and rethink incentives and behavior change communication strategy
HumSafer – Funding
HumSafer raised its seed round in October 2020 for INR 2 crore.
This past May, Jehaan was nominated by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry and the Logistics Skill Council to start and spearhead the Oxygen Transporters & Drivers skill, Train and Deploy initiatives. Under this initiative, HumSafer will be training an additional 3000 drivers for Liquid Medical oxygen transport.
In terms of awards, Microsoft for Startups Grant had selected HumSafer amongst many other startups for a grant of $25,000. The grant came alongside access to Microsoft tools like – Power BI, Azure (server credits) as well as Github repository access for premium. They are also fortunate to be mentored as well as get network opportunities through access to webinars and conferences tailor-made for startups.
HumSafer – Current Status and Future Plans
HumSafer runs its operations across India, however, its head office is in Pune and the operational office is in Mumbai. It also has a Bangalore-based tech team that works relentlessly on the backend.
HumSafer is a pre-revenue start-up but has successfully signed a major tyre company with more than a 10k user base. The team @ HumSafer is confident that they will reach 30,000 drivers in March 2022 and 9 lakh drivers in five years.
HumSafer plans to reach 9 lakh drivers in the next 5 years. It is building its company to be profitable and scalable with the least amount of funding required.
Product and Tech – Currently, HumSafer is an asset-light product (software) and will eventually expand to a hardware device. Presently, it tracks drivers’ behavior and journey and in the future, the team would like to track the vehicle’s data as well to optimize for efficiency
Business Expansion – Right now, the team would like other segments of trucks, buses, 4 wheelers, with a geographic foray into other developing countries (East Asia, African markets)
HumSafer – FAQs
What is HumSafer?
Good Mind (Parent Organization of HumSafer App) has built an asset-light, free, AI-based Road Safety Solution that aims to cut the rate of road incidents to zero. By prompting drivers at the right time with gentle nudges with regard to their driving, truckers are able to modify their behavior and take corrective measures.
Who founded HumSafer?
Jehaan Kotwal and Sumedh Mane are the founders of HumSafer.
What is #DriveForOxygen initiative?
#DriveForOxygen by HumSafer is an initiative that aims to support 4000 HAZ certified drivers that clock over 12 hours to supply oxygen across various parts of the country. These drivers risk deliveries through containment zones, lockdowns, and exhaustion- all while not being considered as ‘frontline workers’, essential or even emergency services, and working on a basic salary.
Who is HumSafer owned by?
Good Mind is the parent company of HumSafer. It is founded by Jehaan Kotwal and Sumedh Mane.
Harshit Verma
